Boyle welcomes push to eradicate roaming charges on all-Ireland basis

Published: 9 January, 2013

Sinn Féin West Tyrone MLA Michaela Boyle says that Sinn Féin has secured the agreement of the Assembly's Enterprise Committee to contact the Oireachtas Joint Committee for Communications & Transport seeking its support in working to eradicate roaming charges across Ireland. The local MLA said: "Sinn Féin has been continually pressing for the eradication of roaming charges which are not only such a financial burden on individuals but on the local economy with recent evidence from Ofcom that consumers in border areas like Strabane District are paying up to £300 a year in inadvertent roaming charges. "Following a successful Sinn Féin motion in the Assembly calling for an end to roaming charges, our party proposed that the Enterprise, Trade & Investment Committee approach the Joint Committee for Communications & Transport in the Oireachtas to work together to seek the eradication of roaming charges across Ireland. "This action has now been progressed and correspondence has been sent to the Oireachtas Committee. "It is unacceptable that companies such as O2, Vodafone and 3, which operate across the island of Ireland, continue to impose unacceptable roaming charges on unsuspecting consumers. These excess premiums imposed by the same parent company is pure and simple profiteering as there is no additional operating costs incurred by the companies. "Assembly and Oireactas committees working together to deal with this issue will exert greater pressure on the operators to remove all roaming charges, deliver a fair deal to consumers in Ireland and improve coverage in rural and border areas. "It is time that the operators stopped ripping consumers off. "That is the clear message I would expect to come out of any joint workings of the two committees to deal with this matter."